Bass Blog

Michael Hovnanian formerly played bass with an orchestra located in a large midwestern city.

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Thursday, February 05, 2009

Blog of the Tour – part three

Coffee and Fish

Sunday, February 1

Breakfast at Starbuck’s again today, coffee and a sandwich with a deliciously creamy but unidentifiable filling – tasted vaguely like tuna, which is hardly reassuring.

Rehearsal and concert of Mahler 6 today at Suntory Hall, mercifully in walking distance from the hotel. I found the experience of playing Suntory much better than Minato Mirai – easier to hear the inner voices and not at all muddy. Rehearsal was scheduled from 11- 1:30, but Haitink wisely called an audible and let us out early, so there was time for a quick lunch and a quick nap before the concert at 4.


Monday, February 2

Due to excessive sake tasting Sunday night, I’m in no mood for breakfast today. Technically, if breakfast is the first thing I ate, I have to include the large quantity of kaiten (conveyor belt) sushi eaten at about 2 PM. The rest of the day was ‘off’ in every sense of the word.

(Internet service is getting more and more expensive so I am growing more creative trying to find free wireless. This post courtesy of Mr Default, resident of Hong Kong.)

6 comments:

spk said...

Thanks for the updates. Can you provide more information on the actual concerts and rehersals?

Unknown said...

Hi, been a longtime follower of this blog; even though it might seem boring to you to talk about rehearsals and things like that, I find it quite refreshing to hear the perspective of an insider, so please keep this blog up!

1. Question, not quite sure what "to call an audible" means? Maybe I'm just being thick but I didn't quite understand.

Thanks again for your great blog!

Michael Hovnanian said...

Jim - my understanding of 'to call an audible' is in football, when the quarterback scans the defense and sees an opportunity or a weakness and calls out a spontaneous change, usually with coded language.

spk - I'm not sure what you want to know, the schedule?

Brad said...

Since I can't seem to get anybody to fix the acoustics of Orchestra Hall, any chance of bringing Suntory Hall back to Chicago with you?

Angrybassist said...

Be thankful that it hasn't come to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4MM5qkkebM

Adriel said...

I wouldn't be surprised if they put fish roe in cream cheese and use that for sandwich filling. Flying fish -- apparently not as fleet as the name would imply -- is a popular source.